New Jersey Criminal Defense Lawyers

Your Fourteenth Amendment Rights: Right to DueProcess

The FourteenthAmendment of the United States Constitution contains a DueProcess Clause. The DueProcess clause protects certain rights of people who have been charged with a crime, but who have not yet been convicted of a crime from police brutality and the use of excessive force by police while in custody.

Law enforcement and correction officers may not use unreasonable force that amounts to punishment on pre-trial detainees (people who are awaiting trial while in prison, or otherwise being detained by police.)

Equal Protection for All

The FourteenthAmendment also contains an Equal Protection Clause. This clause requires all states to provide equal protection under the law to all people within its jurisdiction.

The FourteenthAmendment reads:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without dueprocess of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.